Sunday, September 12, 2010

IP Phone Boot-up process (from www.cisco.com)


1.      Inline Power (ILP)
o   Inline Power Initialization


On Phone: Mute, Headset, Speaker Buttons Are Illuminated
2.      Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) or Link Layer Discovery Protocol-Media Endpoint Discovery (LLDP-MED)
o   ILP Negotiation, Voice VLAN ID


Phone displays:“Configuring VLAN”
Phone settings:Settings=>NetCfg=>“Operational VLAN ID”
NOTE: LLDP-MED is supported as of IP Phone Firmware 8.3(3)

3.      Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
o   IP Assignment, TFTP Server Allocation, DNS (optional)


Phone displays: “Configuring IP”(DNS is optional)
Phone settings: Settings=>NetCfg=>“DHCP Server”Settings=>NetCfg=>“IP Address”Settings=>NetCfg=>“TFTP Server X”

4.      Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP)
o   Configuration File, IP Phone Firmware


Thursday, August 5, 2010

ADD an Iphone to CUCM 7.x and above

  • Use a SFTP/FTP server to upload this file to the call manager.
  • In the Call manager window, go to the “CISCO UNIFIED OS ADMINISTRATION” and then click on SOFTWARE UPGRADES -> INSTALL/UPGRADE.
  • Click on next (fill in the FTP/SFTP details) and let it get uploaded and installed.
  • Once you have successfully installed the file, restart the ccm server and you might have to restart the tomcat service manually by logging to the server via SSH.
  • One you get back your ccm up and running, you can add a new iphone device by going to DEVICES->ADD NEW-> CISCO DUALMODE FOR IPHONE.
  • Make sure your iphone device name starts with TCT (eg: TCTJOHN).
  • You need to assign the SIP DIGEST username form the drop down menu.
If you guys have any doubts, just drop in your queries in the comment box and I might be able to help you out (if anyone bothers to read all this..lol ). I just finished adding an iphone in my LAB. Here is a screenshot from the iphone.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

HALF-DUPLEX issues while installing Unified Communication Suites on VMWARE ESXi

If you get a half-duplex mismatch error on the switch with you CUCM/CUCX/Unity/etc running on VMWARE ESXi, all you gotta do is
1. Turn off the VMachine.
2. Go to “Edit-Setting”.


3. Choose network card option and then click on Remove to get rid of the E1000 Virtual network adapter.


4. Click on ADD and then add a new E1000 network adapator.
This should solve your duplex mismatch issue.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

configuring mobility features in cisco (mobile connect and mobile voice access)

Configuring Cisco Unified Mobility_Posted_12!10!08

(www.ucunleashed.com)Cisco Unified Presence integration with Cisco Unified Communication Manager

After the Call Manager Installation is complete make sure that basic calls are working on Cisco Call Manager. Create an CUP Application Server on Cisco call manager. System->Application Server, and Select the type as “Cisco Unified Presence Server
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Once its setup Install the Cisco unified Presence. Cisco Unified Presence Installation is similar to Cisco Call-Manager Installation.
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The Post Installation Task for Cisco Unified Presence is as follows.
Bring up the Cisco Unified Presence Admin Portal and you will see the Post Installation task window requesting the Cisco Call Manager hostname and IP address. This will link Cisco Unified Presence with the Cisco Call Manager. Note, that one CUP cluster can only be associated with one Call manager Cluster. In the next page it will request for AXL user name and password. AXL is the API CUP uses to communicate with Cisco Call Manager.
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After this step, the Cisco Presence will be integrated with Cisco Call manager but before we start working on Presence with Call Manager, we must complete a few system wide configurations on Cisco Call Manager.
Configure Enterprise, Service and Application paramaters for the new Cisco Unified Presence Server on Cisco call manager
goto System->Service paramaters and set Clusterwide parameters (system presence) to “Allow Subcription”
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goto System->Enterprise Configuration and set Clusterwide Domain configyration -|>Cluster Fully Qualified Domain name to “
Configure SIP Trunk between Cisco Call manager and Cisco unified Presence. This allows the CUP to sync all users on the system via the AXL interface. You will be required to provide login information during the install process of the CUP server
Device->Trunk and enter the Destination Address as Cisco unified Presence IP Address
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Add a CTI (Computer telephony Integration) Gateway. This is required for collecting Call logs related statistics.
User management- > Application User -> Add New
Fill the following information in the fields.
Userid- CtiGw
Password-
Accept Presence Subscription Check
Accept Out-of-dialog-Defer Check
Accept Unsolicitated Notification Check
Accept Replaces Header Check
Select the Available Devices and Add the group “Standard CTI Enabled”
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CUP Configuration

Select the name of the server you just installed from the dropdown. Select Service = “Cisco UP SIP Proxy”. Note it will be marked Inactive if the services are not running. This is possible because we have not looked at adding the CUP licenses. Set the Proxy Domain=
Set the ACL to allow all incoming traffic or set the Access Control Lists to suit yourt organizations Security Policy
Create a Presence Gateway to Cisco Call manager goto Presence->Gateways->Add New->Select CUCM and enter the IP Address of Cisco Call manager
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At this Time Cisco unified Presence is ready to start working with Cisco unified Call manager. Before this, goto Serviceability and activate the services
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(www.ucunleashed.com)Cisco Unified Communication Manager-Initial post-installation configurations

Once the Call manager Installation is complete,we need to complete Post-Installation task to complete the basic system configuration. In this post I will walk through some of the basic post-Install task and later on we will go through Advanced configuration such as Dial Plans etc.
  • Setting the Cisco Call Manager group.
A Cisco Call Manager group specifies a prioritized list of up to three CallManagers. The first CallManager in the group acts as the primary Cisco CallManager for that group. The others act as backup or secondary and tertiary CallManagers.
CallManager groups provide two important features:
1) Redundancy - able to designate backup CallManagers for each group
2) Call Processing Load Balancing - allows the distribution of device control across multiple CallManagers.
goto Server-> Cisco Unified CM Group-> and change the name of the “default” group to the name that suits the naming convention. Select the Cisco Call Manager node just installed from “Available Cisco Unified Communications Manager” to Selected Cisco Unified Communications Manager”
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click Save, and then reset button.
  • Setup Phone NTP reference and Set Date/Time Config
goto System-> Phone NTP Reference and click on “Add New”
Enter the NTP server details and select the Mode. In this case I am going to select Direct Broadcast.
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goto System-> Date/Time Group, and associate the recently added NTP reference to the group by clicking on “Add Phone NTP Reference. Once added click on Save and then reset.
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  • Creating Region and Device Pool
Device Pools- These are user configurable sets of defaults that are applied to each device as it is registered to a particular pool. The devices inherit all the settings from the device pool they are within. This simplifies the distribution of Call Manager groups and allows rapid scaling.
Regions- Defines codecs for a call based on what is an internal (LAN) and external (WAN). LAN uses G.711, WAN uses G.729 for optimization and G.711 for local section
To create a Head Quarter Region, goto System->Region
Select the “Default” region and change the name to “HQ_xxxx”. Click save and reset. We can choose various Codec such as G711, G729 (WAN) for the region and also choose Video Call bandwidth
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to set Device Pools,
goto System-> Device Pool and select the “Default”
Rename the Default to the “HQ_xxxxxx” as per your naming convention. We call it head quarters. Set the “Region” that we configured in the step above and also the SRST reference if any. SRST is the survivable Mode system used for scenarios when the Call Manager goes down and this back up takes place.
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  • Configure Service and Enterprise parameters
goto- System-> Enterprise paramaters and set “Enable Dependency Records” to “True”
This parameter determines whether to display dependency records. Valid values specify True (display dependency records) or False (do not display dependency records).
Displaying dependency records leads to high CPU usage and may impact call processing. It may take a long time to execute. If you monitor CPU usage, you might see high CPU usage alarms. To avoid possible performance issues, display dependency records only during off-peak hours or during the next maintenance window

In our case, we will set this value to True and leave everything as system default.
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Now lets set the service parameters. goto System-> service parameters and select the “Cisco call manager node name” Node and service as “Cisco Call Manager”.
in “System” Section, set “CDR Enabled” flag to “True”
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  • Set Auto-Registration and Cisco Call Manager Port Information
Auto Registration is the feature in Cisco Call manager that allows the Cisco IP Phone to Register automatically and acquire a Directory Number. We can specify the Directory Number range supported for this Call Manager. There is also a flag that controls the Auto Registration feature for this Node. Auto registration is a useful feature which results in faster phone deployment without the need for creating device on the call manager, however this feature can cause security issues. This paramater needs to be activated after careful review of security policies.
goto- System-> Cisco Unified CM and select the CM from the list. Set the “Starting Directory Number” and “Ending Directory Number” as your DN Range. Click Save and Reset
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  • Service Activation
We need to avtivate the services available on Cisco Call manager. goto- Cisco Unified Serviceability and login with the credentials. Select the Services you want to activate (usually Select all) and click “save”
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Thats it, we are set to got further configuration. At this point, we can Take and Cisco IP Phone and configure the TFTP server IP address etc to work with this Cisco Call manager

(www.ucunleashed.com)Install Cisco Unified Communication Manager 7.x

Cisco Call Manager Installation steps.
Hardward used- HP 7845 MCS server
Pop the DVD in the drive and system will boot from DVD and a Media Check will be asked.
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Once the Media check is complete the system will prompt for “Platform Installation Wizard” as shown below.

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The Configuration Wizard will ask for the following information
  • Time Zone
  • For static networking it will ask for IP Address, Mask, Default gateway, DNS Server and if your DHCP is enabled simply select the “DHCP” option.
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  • Administrator Login Credentials. This login is for login through the CLI (Command Line Interface).
  • Certificate Information for creating Security Context for this Node. For trusted relationship with other nodes, send this CSR to Trusted CA authority (Verisign, Geotrust) to get certificate authenticated.
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  • Next step, the Installtion wizard will as you whether this is the first node in the cluster. If No, then it means this node is “Subscriber” and hence it will ask about the “Publishers” IP address
  • Network Time Protocol Server needs to be set for proper clock synchronization
  • Database security credentials for secure communication between cluster nodes.
  • Application user Name and Password. This is the username and pasword for login into Cisco Call Manager Administration via Portal.
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After this the Software will proceed with the installation and no intervention is required from this point onwards. If everything goes fine you will be prompted with the CLI where you can login with the credentials suppilied during initial platform configuration.
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The System will undergo auto reboot as a part of installation process.
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